First up… this is not a call for donations.

Without going into the personal details as to why: I don’t have the energy to give this place the attention it needs, and I’m no longer willing to cover the majority of running costs.

I don’t have a fully fledged solution to this, and don’t have the energy to come up with one. The best I can come up with is I hand the reins over to Nath, and some sort of community funding is set up to cover costs.

If anyone knows of above board methods to establish a crowd funded piggy bank for something like this, I’m all ears.

  • Swagdorf@aussie.zone
    0·
    13 days ago

    Thanks for providing us a little slice of internet away from the likes of Reddit and hoping all goes well for you in the future!

    Keen to join on the monthly donation train once there’s a link, reckon I’ve lurked and freeloaded from FOSS long enough!

  • biscuitswalrus@aussie.zone
    0·
    13 days ago

    I registered here as the first place when I ditched Reddit. Lemmy cured an addiction for me. I don’t really have much energy for Lemmy now either. I’m almost totally social media-less. I take this as a win.

    When I get an urge I open here and I get a clean good (if quiet) feed. I appreciate that you’ve freely given me this space on your servers and if you sign off and hand everything over, all I have is good memories and all I can give is my best wishes.

    Thank you.

    Please if you don’t feel like being part of this anymore, know you’re not indebted to us users. If I care to move, that’s not that hard on Lemmy. Especially because the points don’t exist, a new account somewhere else is trivial even if I don’t migrate my ID because I don’t notice a message telling me it might go offline. It’s not that bad.

  • YeahToast@aussie.zone
    0·
    13 days ago

    I think I’ve donated once… as enjoyers of FOSS we really should be better at paying for what we previously expected corporations to front the bill for. Thanks for all of your work.

    • blind3rdeye@aussie.zone
      0·
      12 days ago

      I totally agree. Actually I think pretty much everyone agrees. It’s just a bit tricky, because it is not what most people are use to in their daily lives.

      I mean, in most cases people seek out the highest quality products at the lowest prices. Lower cost is basically always what people aim for, as long as the quality is high enough. But with FOSS and other free services, you get the product for free… so that’s a win right? Zero cost. What are you paying for? It needs a totally different mindset. We need to think of ourselves as part of a community working together and sharing resources - not a bunch of independent people only making trades for our own self-interest. For that, I think transparency about what funding is needed and where it is going is very helpful.

  • stylusmobilus@aussie.zone
    0·
    12 days ago

    I’m a carer, but I can find a few dollars.

    I like what’s going on here, it’s worth a few dollars

    Edit: and thanks.

  • Demigodrick@lemmy.zip
    0·
    13 days ago

    Really sorry to hear that, best wishes to you.

    I would suggest opencollective, it’s worked really well for us.

  • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    Sorry to hear.

    I donate monthly, so will just redirect to whatever format ends up being chosen.

    Currently donate to Lemmy development as well. If money for the instance is a drama, I’ll redirect that too.

    (Somehow I’m in the top 10 on the leaderboard for both, which is actually kinda sad considering the small amount I’m ponying up)

    • ikt@aussie.zone
      0·
      13 days ago

      tbh i have recommended ads on logged out users and no ads for logged in users

      it makes money from one time visitors and gives an incentive to sign up

      you could even do a glass half full measure, ads enabled until a certain monthly amount is reached then turned off for the rest of the month but ads are seen as the devil so it is what it is

      • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zoneEnglish
        0·
        12 days ago

        i have recommended ads on logged out users and no ads for logged in users

        Works for Whingepool!

        I doubt very much that aussie.zone receives enough visitors to make it viable though.

      • MisterFrog@aussie.zone
        0·
        13 days ago

        With the traffic we get, ad revenue probably really wouldn’t make a dent. I think we could very comfortably afford no ads, provided calls for donations go out more regularly so we don’t forget.

  • ikt@aussie.zone
    0·
    13 days ago

    appreciate all the hard work Lodion! 💪

    Aussie Zone is one of my most visited sites along with OCAU and Whirlpool

  • eatham 🇦🇺@aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    Open Collective is pretty good, it could be used. Good on ya for passing it to Nate rather than just letting it die, but it’ll be sad to have you gone

  • Gorgritch_Umie_Killa@aussie.zone
    0·
    13 days ago

    Lodion, first, thank you. You’ve shown me a genuinely far healthier side of the internet. A side I never knew existed up until just over three years ago. Thanks to you setting up this instance, I’ve learned a lot more than I ever thought I would about the web and social media.

    Secondly, you’ve created a community here, i’ve always thought it’d be good to see you engage more socially, but understood you were very engaged in different ways and perhaps not interested in that side of things anyway, fair enough. But, for my piece at least, I hope you stick around and enjoy more of the social aspect of this community you’ve been so instrumental in creating. :)

    Nath, I hope the transition goes smoothly. I always understood funding was a quiet issue in the background, and I will be there to help with costs. Lets make the funding of this place a sustainable aspect that you don’t have to worry about.

    Any other help I can jump in to aupport you with, you know where to find me. :)